Drive by: of the Temple of Elemental Evil? (Spoilers for AoW and RttToEE)

[Jarrod]

One of the things the PCs can do before attacking Kyuss is to detour past the Tomb of Horrors and pick up a Sphere of Annihilation - the "green demon face". Problem is, my players never did run through ToH, and as a result I think that snagging the ToH SoA would lose a lot of its impact. I've been trying to figure out a way to make this more important without losing the main point: that Kyuss needs to be taken down.

And I think I have it. While my players never did ToH, they _did_ play through Monte Cook's Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. And one of the artifacts in the Outer Fane of the Temple is a Sphere of Annihilation. More to the point, the players will actually recognize it.

Which brings up my challenge: to design the inhabitants of the (recently cleared) Outer Fane of the Temple. I figure the original party cleared things out about three years ago (keeping real time), and since then new cultists would have moved in.

Given the Sphere, the cult leader should be an entropomancer from Complete Divine. So that the campaign doesn't get derailed I'm thinking the challenges should be in the 10 (mooks) to 18 range - nothing the PCs can't handle, but fun.

Any ideas for strange creatures that would be attracted to a cult of entropy and destruction?

[Rexx]

First, thanks for the reminder on the sphere at the Crater Ridge Mines/Fanes in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

As for what has filled the void after the Tharizdan cults were defeated...again, really depends on what was left from the PCs' predations. If members of the element cults survived, perhaps they've "moved up" and are inhabiting the Fane. If one of the NPCs from the Fane escaped death, that's the most logical individual to place in charge of the Fane (and thus access to the Sphere).

If the Fane and Mines were effectively "wiped out", then you may want to take a different approach to what has filled the void. I have always thought of Tharizdan's physical form as one of the Dead Gods floating in the Astral. It would be reasonable to suggest that a githyanki settlement is well established on Tharizdan's body, slowly wittling away his form in a manner that would make a Lord of Entropy quite happy. As such, the githyanki may have noticed that their home was nearly "raised" and nearly razed. Thus, a large githyanki contigent could be occupying the Fane to safeguard it from further attempts by Tharizdan's cult to revive him. In this case, you have tons of githyanki related material to glean for good encounters. Look up the Incursion campaign material that came out in Dungeon 100.

If you really want to throw some curves at the PCs, look up the Melnibonean material that Chaosium published in 2000. Have some Melnibonean sorcerers/warlocks that have come to the Fane in attempt to resurrect Tharizdan, one of the Old Gods that spawned the Lords of Chaos made famous by Michael Moorcock's The Eternal Champion books. A few Melnibonean dragons on the scene ought to challange the PCs effectively. In their attempts to secure the Sphere from the Melniboneans, they also send them back through their portal to their original Material Plane.

Lastly, if you want to keep it straightforward, just look up some of the Limbo/Pandemonium critters that would be attracted to Entropy. Perhaps some githzerei are trying to revive Tharizdan to mess with their githyanki cousins and your wizard is from this race. Or the Slaad Lords want the site for their own Prime Material machinations. Or use the reintroduced modrons who have come on the scene to guard the Fane from Chaos. This may present some great opportunities for diplomacy rather than hacking up githyanki/githzerei/Melniboneans/slaad.

Have fun with it and good luck!

[Rexx]

A quick Google search found this at Rich Burlew's site:

Mortis Elemental - Negative Energy Plane
All elementals come in various sizes. The Mortis Elemental shown below is Large, other sizes of Mortis elementals should be created using the HD and advancement of a Water elemental.

Large Mortis Elemental
Size/Type: Large Elemental (Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 8d8+32 (68 HP)
Initiative: +3
Speed: 40ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 23 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +11 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+13
Attack: Slam +9 melee (2d6+3 plus 1d4 negative energy plus energy drain)
Full Attack: 2 slams +9 melee (2d6+3 plus 1d4 negative energy plus energy drain)
Space/Reach:10ft./10ft.
Special Attacks: Energy drain, rebuke undead
Special Qualities: Draining aura, Blindsense 60ft., elemental traits
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +6
Abilities: Str 16, Dex 16, Con 18, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 15
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +6
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Turning, Weapon Focus(Slam)(B), Improved Initiative(B)
Environment: Negative Energy Plane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: None
Alignment: Usually Neutral
Advancement: 9-15 HD (Large)
Level Adjustment: -
A mortis elemental resembles a tall, shifting pillar of deepest blackness, inside of which a humanoid figure lurks. Mortis elementals can speak Infernal and Abyssal, though they almost never do so.
COMBAT
Similar to their positively charged cousins, mortis elementals are not inherently evil. But where the animus elementals are attracted to spread the joyous energy of Life, mortis elementals exist only to drain the life force from all living things and replace it with cold emptiness. The trail left by a rampaging mortis elemental is marked with shriveled remnants of plant life, and the wasted corpses of small creatures. A mortis elemental will not wait for provocation for attacking, instead rushing to drain the life from the nearest source of energy.
-Negative Energy: A Mortis elemental's slam attacks deal negative energy in addition to its slam damage. Against living creatures, this deals additional damage as normal. Against undead creatures, it instead heals them of an amount of hit points equal to the negative energy damage that would be dealt.
-Energy Drain: Living creatures hit by a mortis elemental's slam attack gain one negative level. The DC is 16 for the Fortitude save to remove a negative level. The save DC is Charisma-based. For each such negative level bestowed, the mortis elemental gains 5 temporary hit points. If an individual ever has negative levels equal to or greater than its current HD, it is slain and becomes a free-willed wraith.
-Rebuke Undead: A mortis elemental can rebuke undead as a cleric equal in level to its HD, plus the benefit of its Improved Turning feat. A mortis elemental has no limit on the number of times per day it can attempt to rebuke undead.
-Draining Aura: The very air around a mortis elemental is dry and dead, sapping the life from nearby creatures. Any creature within 5ft. of a mortis elemental takes 1d4 negative energy damage each round they remain within range. Any creature that strikes the mortis elemental with a natural weapon or unarmed attack also takes 1d4 negative energy damage for each hit inflicted.
-Blindsense: A mortis elemental can sense the life force of nearby living creatures. In addition to granting it blindsense, the mortis elemental is treated as being under the effects of a permanent deathwatch spell.

[DMR]

This is a good idea, since your players will recognize it from previous adventures.

However, since they've never played ToH, and WoTC recently put an updated version on their website, and it IS a classic that everyone should play... maybe it would be fun to hand out pregenerated characters and run it on the side (this way you can also go out of your way to kill as many as possible!) - then, eventhough the characters will be new to ToH, the players will know what they're getting in to...